written by Tom & Celesta Latchworth

presented by The Promise Players at Lampeter Church of the Brethren, Lampeter, PA

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Friday Evening, May 17

6:00 pm

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We have been to a variety of The Promise Players presentations, and were looking forward to this one because it was their first dinner theatre.

This performance was done to raise funds for new sound equipment for The Promise Players. All previous presentations were fundraisers to benefit other non-profit ministries for which they have raised $279,200.00.

The evening began with introductions and housekeeping details – like turn off your cell phones.

Also, any “who done it” needs a detective like Inspector Casey Solved.

Introductions were followed by a delicious salad.

The mystery began when it was discovered there were two identical date nut loaves at the church bakes sale. Lillian “Lil O’ Laydee fainted when she realized that someone stole her family’s secret date nut loaf recipe. As a matter of fact, she usually fainted when she was upset.

There was a period of time when everyone had a reason to blame each other for the duplicate nut loaf. Left to right: Mary Heart, Pattie Kake, Lillian O’Laydee, Pastor Dale E. Bredd, III, and Lotta Nerve.

Lillian O’Laydee fainted again during all the fuss about who stole her date nut loaf recipe.

Eventually Inspector Casey was called in to help solve the case.

At the end of Act 1, our delicious entree of dinner rolls, crusted chicken, buttered potatoes and green beans was served by the cast and kitchen crew.

Our table included Cerwin, Me, Inge and Sam. Sam must have walked away for some reason, because his chair is empty. We enjoyed meeting the four people across the table from us. One of them knew our daughter Deb and another knew our friends Barry and Lucy.

Act 2 began with more discussion about how Lillian’s date nut loaf recipe could have been stolen. During that time Inspector Casey was having both loaves analyzed to see if the ingredients were indeed the same.

More blame and discussion began after Inspector Casey came back with the verdict saying they were the same, except Lillian may have substituted a few “easier and cheaper” ingredients.

Inspector Casey determined a few reasons why it could have been any one of the five characters in the play.

While each one explained why it couldn’t have been them – Lillian fainted again.

Could Pattie Kake have done it because she was the first person to arrive at the bake sale – just after Lillian brought her date nut loaf?

Could the reverend have done it because the date nut loaf always brought in a lot of money, and he wanted the church to have a large fundraiser?

Could Mary Heart have done it to get attention because she was a new member of the church.

Could Lillian have brought two date nut loaves?

Or was it Lotta Nerve, who was the most obvious because of her take-hold-intrusive personality. Also, she was always trying to get on the good side of Inspector Casey?

We each had a ballot on our table to vote for our choice of the person we thought stole Lillian’s recipe. When a name was called, we were asked to raise our ballot if that is the one we chose. The character came and took those ballots. Most people voted for Mary Heart and Reverend Dale E. Bredd, III. I suppose because they seemed the least obvious.

Somewhere during this time we enjoyed dessert. There was a variety of baked items, ice cream and coffee.

Then we listened as each one explained why it couldn’t have been them.

Mary explained that she did not steal the recipe, but during the process of solving this case, discovered that she and Lillian were related, and both had the same “secret” family recipe.

Mystery solved!

Curtain call.

That was certainly a fun evening.

I am already looking forward to the one they plan to present in November.